Once upon a time there were two monks, they worked in a monastery that supported itself by weaving baskets and selling the baskets. When they had gathered a large number of baskets one day, they set out for the marketplace of the town nearest to their mountain home. The two monks split at the center of the Piazza, one to the north, one to the south. They said, you sell your baskets, I will sell my baskets, we will meet at the end of the day and return to our monastery together. The end of the day the first monk had sold all of his baskets and came to wait by the fountain for his friend. He waited all that night, his friend did not return. All the next day he waited, and the next night. And finally that last hour that he would wait, his friend arrived, disheveled, dirty, shame faced, he said, my brother, I cannot return to the monastery with you, I have sinned, I have succumbed to temptation, I have broken my vow, I have spent the money, I have committed fornication. The first monk listened, and then said, come my brother, we will return to the monastery and tell them that we have sinned, we will repent together and deliver at least half the money, and they never need know which of us spent the rest. And so it was. What do you think? How do you kind of like that little parable? How do you don't like that parable? How do you are bothered by that parable? Raise your hand if you are bothered by that parable. How do you like it and are bothered by it? Let me tell you, here is the official interpretation of the parable, this is the official interpretation. I make up some parables, but this one is not my parable. Lesson number one, when one person sins all share in it, sin is not entirely an individual act. Lesson number two, we are responsible for the sins of our brothers. The innocent monk is saying, if I had been there for you, perhaps this would not have happened. Perhaps I could have protected you from your failure. Principle number three, the potential for doing or committing almost every sin lies within each of us. Given the right circumstances, we could all commit almost any sin. So it is better to identify with our sinning brother than it is to judge them. Number four, when our brother sins, we need to stand by him, forgive him to restore him. As one person said, and I hate this, I hate this, and I don't think it's true, but there's a grain of truth to it. The Christian army is the only one that shoots it's wounded. How do you like the official interpretation? Some of them are okay. And the word some implies that some maybe are not. How do you like the official interpretation? How many just like the official interpretation? How many of you like it and dislike it? That's me, that's where I stand. How many of you wish I'd never told you the official interpretation? Maybe it's wrong, maybe that's not what the story is about. Maybe, maybe by giving you the official interpretation, I did what you would expect in a seminar class, I played theologian. I said let's draw for theological deductions about sin and responsibility in the community and to what extent we are made new and to what extent we are not made new and to what extent we're individually responsible to what extent we're corporately responsible. Maybe that's all so much theological gameplay that gets us away from the religion, and that would be which monk are you? Where do you fit in the story? Have you ever stood with somebody who's sinned, taken a risk? Is that the point? Well, I tell you this story not to tell you what it really means, but to illustrate why parables are so gripping and why they're so problematic. Because, you know, you never quite sure what they mean sometimes. And sometimes if you do get it all spelled out, you think to yourself, is that what Jesus said? Jesus doesn't always interpret his own parables, doesn't. And maybe we need to lay off all the interpretation and just sit back and listen and ask if that story is my story. And if it is my story, what should I do about it? We'll have a chance to see how parables work for the next several hours that we're together. But one of the things we need to understand about parables is that it's very logical that Jesus start to talk about parables exactly here, exactly here. Now, if in fact I wanted to teach you as a group that the potential for every sin lies within you, but there's no sin you could commit, you can conceive of, it's too much if the circumstances were right. That might not be a real popular teaching, it might upset some of you. Maybe it'd be logical to convey that if I believed it, and in fact it's a very complicated question. And if you want to know whether I believe that or not, the answer is not exactly, or sort of, if you make the right qualifications, but God preserves us from doing anything. And we are made new and every soul is not identical to every other soul. But suppose I wanted to convey that. You might not want to start off by just saying, now listen you guys, you may love watching or reading stories about various murders and how they're going to jail and pointing their finger, but you could do the same thing. I'm not going to go into events in the news right now, but there's several, we'll go into them, some gruesome, horrible, hard-hearted criminals have been sent packing recently and sent off to their death recently, totally unrepentant. If I was trying to make the point that you could do exactly the same thing, I might want to do it sort of in a subtle kind of way. Warm you up for it a little bit, so just start attacking you. Well, again, I don't believe that. That's not a hidden text here. I do believe that God preserves His people from committing wicked deeds and then being unrepentant about them and hard-hearted about them. But Jesus was speaking to an audience who might say it's vaguely like this, an audience that has largely proven themselves to be highly unreceptive. And so it makes sense that he would start to teach them about the way things are in parables. Furthermore, not only is there unreceptive, but some of them are downright hostile. If he comes out and says explicitly what he believes, they may simply do what we see them doing whenever they can using it against them. So we might see that Jesus is protecting himself to a certain extent by speaking in parables. But certainly, once we are to the point that it's clear that there is settled and heavy opposition to Jesus parables appear. One third of all the teaching in the Sonophi Gospels is parables, and it begins right after the opposition is established. The first parable, the foundational parables, one we all know well, I'd like to try to give it a little bit of a fresh look and that is the parable of the sower. You notice when you look at this parable and the group of parables told in Matthew chapter 13 that Jesus is addressing two groups. Some parables are to the crowds, others are only for the disciples. In 1344 and fallen, you get parables just for disciples, the earlier ones are for everybody, to some extent at least. The topic is the kingdom and responses to the kingdom and it begins with this foundation, the parable of the sower. Now you know the parable of the sower, but notice one thing, it is told 131 says that same day. The same day that Jesus presumably I think was accused of casting out demons by the power of Satan, the same day that they said, first he said, show us a sign, prove that you're the Messiah, that same day he spoke to them in parables. He spoke to the parables about the kingdom because he had to explain this great riddle. How could the Christ, how could the Savior show these signs of the kingdom, show that he's defeating Satan and get only opposition for it? How can it be, I mean we know this, but if you were there, if you were there that day, if you were disciple, if you loved Jesus, you had to be asking the question, how can it be that the Redeemer has come is performing the miracles of the hand of God that proves these gods agent and when he gets for it is hatred, accusation and murderous thoughts. This is a burning question that must be answered. The question remains, I must add also to this day, to this day a zealous Christian will still want to know how can it be that the Christ has come, that the Lord of the universe has come, that the free and full salvation is offered and so many people are not only indifferent to it but actively even against it, how can it be? How can it be? How can we explain this unexpected startling and tragic fact of life? Jesus tells a story. The story is, to our ears, a little bit strange, the farmer goes out to sow, the sower goes out to sow. And he scatters the seed and some falls on a path, the birds eat it up. Some fall on rocks and springs up quickly because it has very little soil and the sun comes and scorches. Others fall on thorns and they grow up and choke the plant. And others fall on good soil where it produces 160 or 30. Again, you need to know the times. Was this man crazy throwing seed on a path? I want to do a thing like that, throwing on a rock, throwing it on briar patches. This is the way you did things in the ancient world. For one thing, you scattered your seed first and then you tilled. And now we of course tilled first and then we put in our seeds and it works better. But if you regard, you know that if you just throw a bunch of seeds out there from last year, you know the tomatoes that spoiled or the peppers you forgot to eat somehow or whatever, and just turn your soil over, you may get a lot the next year, it can work. The people did it always that way in that world. And to say, one translation or a couple of translations say through it on the road doesn't, you know, must not think of, you know, the cement highways here, the road that we have in view here is simply the path. I mean, there weren't any cars, remember that? There weren't any cars then. And so it can't be asphalt that we're talking about here. They walked from place to place. Furthermore, they only had cars so they didn't need asphalt. They didn't know how to make asphalt either. They didn't know how to make concrete. They used stones. The most roads, and there's a big fuss about Roman roads and so forth, how wonderful. The reason is that most roads were dirt. And most roads just went through somebody's backyard and you said, hey, I'm tired of a road. I think I'll plant something. And so this is entirely predictable. You know, build your road and somebody else's garden. I'm going to plant some zucchini here. Well, entirely common for the day. What's actually uncommon in this parable is the yield. Now, if anybody here's a farmer, a yield of 160 or 30 is fairly typical today. But an antiquity of the yields were commonly 6 or 8 or 10 grains for every one sowed. So think of it this way. You sow one corn, kernel, and you get an ear with 8 or 10 kernels. Or one wheat, and you get 8 or 10, instead of today dozens. The amazing thing is how much fruit from those that did bear fruit. And then Jesus says, he was yours to hear, let him hear. Now, we've heard this so many times that we think, well, this is the easiest parable of them all. Do you think this is an easy parable of people who hurt first? I don't think it was. If I've been there, I'd probably be scratching my head saying, why is he talking about farmers? And what is the meaning of this anyway? I mean, I can get one meaning. You know, sometimes you plant, you throw out some seed, and you get good results, and sometimes you get bad. Isn't that the truth? Sometimes you study for a quiz, five minutes, and you get an A. Other times you study for three hours, and you get a C. Bad analogy. Alright, sometimes you're a salesman. Salesman, you make 15 calls, you don't get anywhere. Other times you make two calls, you make two sales. It may make them in two hours for that matter. It may work 15 hours on those 15. That's the way life is, right? Is that what Jesus is saying? Or it'll be possible for people who are there to take a simple moral lesson out of it, and then go home. And I suppose probably some people did. In fact, so far as we can tell, most people didn't really try to figure out what it was about. Verse 10, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, why do you speak to the people in parables? Everybody doesn't hear this. The answer given is, the answer given is, to give to some, and to take from others. Now what does that mean? A little bit more carefully. The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Has been given to you. We talked about this before, I believe once, is a divine pass. It has been given by God. When you hear it has been given, it doesn't tell you who did the giving. Knocked the door will be open. Who's going to open it? God. That's the way they spoke. They didn't want to use the word God anymore than they had to. So it has been given to you means God gave it to you. It's been given by God. So to you, the secrets have been given, but not to them. The mystery of God's sovereign decision. On the other hand, now this is the second or third time we talked about this. On the other hand, it's not simple the sovereign decision. We talked about this earlier, let me just say it again. Why does one person believe in another not? Why do the Pharisees not respond to the disciples do? In one hand we say faith is the gift of God. No one can conjure it up, work it up, convince themselves. Nobody can say, look at me. I may be a sinner, but at least I'm smart. I saw a good deal when I saw it. God said, hey, free salvation. I said, I'm jumping at that and that's why I'm a Christian this day. At least I'm maybe a sinner, but I'm clever. Can't say that. It's a gift of God. On the other hand, on the other hand, Jesus would not allow that point that truth to lead anyone into passivity and into fatalism as if who knows if I'm elected from God or by God or not. So I'll sit and wait and see what God does and then I'll find out someday whether I'm elected or not. It's true that it's a gift. It's also true that Jesus speaks in parables to punish unbelief. These are not people who come to the parables day novo as a blank slate. These are people who have already seen and heard plenty. And after seeing and hearing plenty, some of them said it's satanic. Another said, that's interesting. Another said, I'll follow you. The people who said, that's interesting and that's about all. Probably didn't come around with the question, why are you doing this? You see, Jesus says to you it's been given, hey, those are the ones that are interested in the first place. Those are the ones who said, Jesus, I don't get what you're talking about, but I want to know. Explain it to me, see. They get the answer because they're interested in the answer. The audience, we might say to some extent, is self-selected. Look at what Jesus says, verse 13. He says, well, 12 and 13, whoever has will be given more. 13, this is why I speak in parables. Those seeing, or I'm going to say a better translation here, is because, if anybody wants to know, I'll talk Greek with you after class, because seeing they do not see hearing they do not hear or understand. So what little they have will be taken away because it didn't make use of what they did have. Matthew 13, 13 is stressing, they failed to understand what they already had. Therefore, the parables are going to punish those who failed to hear. He's going to punish them by hiding the word from them, taking it away from them. Amos 8-11, they'll have a famine for the word of God. All the punishments God can give one of the most frightening is to say, I will speak to you no more. And that's really related back to, shake the dust off your feet, move on, you had your chance. It's not indefinite. God is not always waiting on you, hoping it lasts. You'll come to him after the 4000th offer. Now I've made some enemies. Maybe I have it. Mark chapter 4, verses 11 and 12. Mark chapter 4, verses 11 and 12, just states it a little bit differently. And I want to see the slightly different spin. I'm going to suppose, again, that Jesus said probably both what's in Matthew and what's in Mark probably said a lot of things about why spell comparables. Of course, we're working with a Greek translation from the Arabic, so maybe under the guidance of Holy Spirit to just translate a little differently. But look at verse 12, why does Jesus speak in parables in Mark 4, 10-12? Very, very similar, but just one little difference. Secrets of the kingdom have been given to you, but to those on the outside, everything is said in parables. So that, in Mark, in Mark, it's so that they may ever be seeing but never perceiving. In Matthew, it's because. The Matthew is putting his emphasis on the idea that it's a punishment because you saw and didn't respond then what you had will be taken away and I'm done with you, at least for now. He may tell them more later, but at least for now. In Mark, he's stressing the consequences. The consequence of parables is that for those who are hard-hearted, they'll see but they won't understand. And they'll just say, hey, you know, he tells stories and some may say he tells stories. It's stupid. I'm going home. On others will say he tells stories and it's kind of interesting, but I've got other things to do. And they'll never really understand. Let me go back when I said I've made some enemies. Now, you understand, I don't like to overtly disagree or put other people down, but there is a line of thinking about the gospel. That every, you know, that God is his begging you to come to him. And I understand that. I understand why people would talk that way. And they're not my enemies and I don't really want to put anybody down who has said that or would say that. But I don't think it's fair to the overall testimony of scripture. God is not begging us. God is Lord. He doesn't beg. He invites, but he doesn't beg. That's what I meant by that particular remark. Well, so the parables take from some and they give the others. How do parables take? Well, they take by simply not giving us plain prose. Jesus doesn't say overtly exactly what he means all the time. And some people may dismiss him for that and simply leave. They give. How do parables give? Well, they give a couple ways. They're vivid. They're memorable. You could forget the parable, the good Samaritan or the lost sons and, you know, just carry it with you. They're graphic. They're vivid. They're often open-ended. They prompt us to think. They move us to ponder. They're like a really good question. And sometimes they disarm us. Maybe even like the parable of the monks. You don't really know where it's going. What does he mean by that? And then I say maybe you're one of the monks and you say, oh, maybe I am. And you're caught off guard. Someone bite. Well, that's what they do. What does the parable of the sower mean? It means that there are different kinds of responses to the word. Some are flat unbelievers. They just, nothing happens at all. Birds just come snatchers. No response whatsoever. Others are, I'll call them counterfeit believers. They look like temporary believers. They look like people who believe for a few days or a few minutes. They spring up. They say, hey, Christianity sounds great. And then as soon as the first thing goes wrong, they're gone. Others would appear to be believers, but they're defeated or they're fruitless. And that's of course a contradiction. And they're seen to be possessed of some life, but no fruit ever comes. They're choked. What does that mean? What a paradoxical, what a strange thing. Are they really believers or not? It's not quite clear, but if they are, they're very strange believers who don't produce anything. And of course there are, there are true believers who produce a wonderful harvest, hundred or sixty or thirty times, what is so. And that's where the parable ends, isn't that funny? It kind of explains it, but it's not done yet, isn't it? Or if you really want to work with a parable, what comes next? Well, a couple of you said the interpretation, but he just gave the interpretation. That's right. The application remains. And of course application is part of interpretation. Namely, where do you fit? What kind of soil are you? We call it the parable of the sower. It is about the sower, but it's really about soils, different kinds of soil, and how they respond to the sowing of the word. Whether there is an abundant harvest or not. It's also a parable about the kingdom, though. It's not just about us. It's true, it's about us and how we respond. But it's also a parable about the way the kingdom comes. Remember what Jesus said is the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom has been given to you. Is that this the knowledge of the secrets of the soul, which kind of soil are you? That's valid. There's more. There's something about the kingdom. Remember the question I put you earlier? How can it be? How can it be that the kingdom is here and there's no response? Well, one answer is because some people are just unresponsive, but there's another answer. And that other answer is that the kingdom comes into the world in a quiet and a hidden form. It comes not like an army, but like a seed. Jesus did not say the kingdom of God is like a tidal wave. It did not say the kingdom of God is like an army with a million men or a thousand. He said the kingdom of God is like a sower scattering seed. The mystery is that it comes here so quietly, so invisibly, so small. You're disciple, you wonder how can it be? There's such response. Jesus says, you know, wait, it's like a seed. Let it grow. More is coming. There's a harvest coming. Don't despair. I say that to you, but I think it was really important. Then they needed to know the Christ in whom they put their faith, the Redeemer in whom they were putting their faith, was in danger of dying. This whole work was in danger of being discredited. Jesus is relaxed. This is my plan. That's what the kingdom is like. It comes quietly. It's also a parable about Jesus. Jesus comes quietly like a sower, not like a general, not like somebody on an army, not like a wave, not like a mountain. He comes like a sower just scattering seed. That's where it comes. Parable has several layers of meaning. He asks us who we are. It asks us, if we know what the kingdom is like, it asks us to be sure we understand who Jesus is and how he comes. And how God does his work in the world, not by compulsion, not by might, but by his spirit. That's the way God works. What goes on from there to another very important parable that also explains the way the kingdom is. And we call it sometimes the parable of wheat and the tears, or sometimes we call it the parable of the weeds. And this parable is another very foundational one. And it presupposes and builds upon the parable of the sower. The idea of the word coming quietly like a seed and being scattered and growing, all the and diverse responses and quiet growth and so forth. Those are all there already. That's all soon. And let me get something else. The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed seed in his field. Okay, we're familiar with that. But while everyone was sleeping, now here's something new. The enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. And when the wheat sprouted and formed, then the weeds also appeared and people were baffled. They said, sir, what's the deal? I'm paraphrasing now. What's the deal? I thought you scattered good seed. But now there are weeds mixed in here. Should we go tear them out? Answer no. Because if you do, you may root up the wheat as well. Are you gardeners? Do you know what he's talking about? Sometimes you get a big, noxious weed and it's right next to your, whatever it is, your plant is interested in. And the weed can be so big and so tangled in with the roots that if you pull out one is to pull out the other. And you have to wait and maybe just snip it off or whatever the case would be. Wait a while. You can't just tear it out. So it is with this case, let them grow together till the harvest. Then we'll collect them, collect the wheat and tie them up and put them in bundles and then we'll burn the weeds. Well, that's a great story. What does it mean? What's it about? There are two views, two understandings of what this parable might mean. The one is that this is about the church. And in the church, God, Jesus scatters his seed and it is growing. But now we're getting rid of the other three bad, unresponsive. Now we're just talking about those who've grown and responded. Now even among those who grow, somebody comes and wreaks havoc and has a little fun with some mayhem and pollutes the church by scattering what? Unbelievers among the church. So the church will be impure. And the point of the story is that church discipline may be valuable, but you can never root the unbeliever completely out of the church. How many of you have heard that? How many of you believe that? Some of you have heard it. Some of you might believe it. I think that some good people have argued for that view, but I cannot personally accept that understanding of it. And the reason why I can't accept that understanding is that he says in 1341, when he explains it to them, he says, I'll explain it all to you. He says, look, the one who sowed is a son of man. The field is the world. So the field is not the church. The field is the world. And the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one. Harvest is the end of the age. Verse 41, the son of man will send his angels and they'll weed out of his kingdom. Everything that causes sin and evil. Now, those who say this is about the church, appeal the verse 41. They say this is about rooting weeds out of the kingdom. But the problem is that the kingdom and the church are not the same thing. The kingdom is broader as we saw earlier. The kingdom is broader than the church. The church is significant. It's the vanguard, it's the starting point, it's the focal point, but it's not the whole. The kingdom is broader. God rules, and that's what this passage is saying, ultimately rules over the entire world. The field is the world. And when God roots the weeds out of his kingdom, he's rooting them out of the entire world. So the point of this parable, which is vital then, and now is that in this age, although we might wish that the kingdom would grow up and dominate and there would be no pollution, it's not so. There is still evil in this world, and in this age the two grow up together. The evil and evil doers and unrepentant people are flourishing and living right among us in the field, the world. And it is only at the end of this age that they will finally be rooted out. That our maturation takes place, we might even say, while we are growing up alongside unbelievers. So you see how important this is for the disciples to realize that this is the nature of the age in which we live. We live in an age of opposition. We live always in a world that will have much pollution, and never will they be separated out until the end. Then at the end, the evil doers will be cast into the fiery furnace, and then the righteous will shine like the sun. But not now. So the disciples then, that's your time. That's your life. And the disciples now, that is our life. Now very briefly we need to add some other things. Although the kingdom is growing quietly, imperceptibly, slowly, and with much evil alongside it, Jesus tells four more parables, or maybe more than four. We just cover very rapidly that give us hope and encouragement. It's not simply, guys that's the way it is, put up with it. Get tough. Life is hard. It's not simply a council of despair, nor does a council of stiff upper lip. The parable of the mustard seed suggests to us that the kingdom starts off very, very small, but it grows. Now, sorry, I didn't tell you what verse it is, verse 31, the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. And though it's the smallest of your seeds, when it grows, it's the largest of garden plants. In fact, it becomes like a tree. It's the birds of the air, perched in its branches. Now the fact is that a mustard seed is a very small seed, and maybe the smallest of the common seeds, not the smallest seed in the world, Jesus is not talking about botany here. It's the smallest of your common seeds that an isorite would actually plant. And it can grow to be a great bush. It's so big of a bush, they can grow to be ten feet, I guess, in the ancient Middle East and to this day, that it's virtually a tree. It'll shock you. It's kind of like a lilac bush. You ever see a lilac bush? How big are they usually? You know, four, you know, four, six, eight, or a, oh, now I can't say it, a rotodendron, that's another one. Typically, if you see wild rotodendron, it's three, four feet high. But if you get a cultivated rotodendron in the right place, the right sun, the right soil, they can get to be 20 feet tall. It could be like a, it's not a tree, it's a bush, but it's like a tree. That's the way the kingdom is. It starts off really small, but it's going to, it's going to astonish you with how big it gets in the end. It's final size. It's bigger than you would dream. It's also like yeast. Now, this is kind of a strange analogy, but Jesus is a lot to do that. He's a lot to shake people up, you know. And so, he says the kingdom is like yeast. Now, it's strange because yeast is ordinarily a sign of corruption, which causes things to decay and so forth, and the yeast needs to be removed, you know, removed the old leaven. And various things like that. We read, for example, in 1 Corinthians 5, but yeast also does have a positive analogy of the kingdom, and that is that yeast is another small thing. If you, if you're baking bread, you make, bake, bake bread here. Ladies, men and men here bake bread too. Okay. If you're baking bread, and you forget to put in the yeast, what do you get out of your oven? You get hot rocks, right? But if, but now just, if you're, let's say you're baking three loaves of bread, they're about a pound and a half each. How much yeast do you need to keep all that water and flour and, you know, baking soda and powder and eggs and whatever else you put in there? How much do you need to transform those potential hot rocks into something really good and tasty? How much do you need? You just need a teaspoon, you don't need much, you just need a little bit, and it transforms the whole thing. And it also works imperceptibly, and that's the kingdom. It works quietly, imperceptibly, and it changes everything, radical transformation. When you're not even looking to the disciples, he adds a couple more things. Just want to consider two of them with you. He says the kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field. It may come in a small form, surprising form, but it's worth everything you have. If you find that treasure in the field, what does he say? When a man found it, he sold all that he had and bought that field. It was that valuable. It's worth, it may be small, it may be unexpected in its form, but it's worth everything you've got. And then he also says this. He says it's also like a pearl, which some people say is almost identical the idea of the field, but I think there's one little wrinkle, and that is that a pearl is a small thing, it's like a gem. It's not exactly a gem, but it's like gems. In that you can scrutinize them, you can examine them for flaws, or for defect, or for perfection. And I think this little extra nuance, it's not only worth everything you have, but scrutinize it if you will. Turn it over and over, examine it for flaws. And you will find that it is indeed worth all that you have. Jesus wraps it up this way. He says to them, have you understood all these things? They say, yes, we have understood it all. And Jesus showing his encouraging side to these enthusiasts doesn't say, oh yeah, really, let me give you a quiz. Nor does he say to them, you have no idea how little he's understood. He encourages them in stead. He says, look, if that's true, then understand that every teacher of the law has been instructed them in verse 52, about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house, who brings out of his store room, new treasures as well as old. And what he's saying is this, they're wonderful treasures in the old covenant. Don't neglect them, make use of them. Bring those out of your storehouse, but I'm giving you new treasures. And you disciples then, and you now, treasure them too, and bring them out, and share them at all. Both sides, the new and the old, and then you'll be joining me in my kingdom work. And you'll be joining me in my kingdom work.